Dongala Mutha promo song and making video were launched at screen 2 of Cinemax multiplex on the night of 11 March 2011. Ram Gopal Varma explained the technology he used to minimize the budget expenses.
Ram Gopal Varma said, “I had been making films for the past 20 years. I might have made bad films, but all my films were said to be appreciated for technical values. I learnt about steady cam in ‘American Cinematographer’ periodical and enquired about it. I learnt that it was kept idle and unused in Chennai Prasad Labs as no film director was willing to employ it as focusing will be difficult while handling that camera. I opined that we don’t need focusing while shooting chases and employed steady cam for the first time in South India. Around seven steady cams were imported from abroad within one year of Shiva’s release. There is a resistance whenever a new change is coming up. I am coming up with a revolutionary idea to minimise the production cost with Dongala Mutha. All the major technicians and actors did it for free and will share the profits. The cost I indulged while making Dongala Mutha was 6 and half lacs (mostly for renting out a premise and other miscellaneous expenses). Somebody told me that the main reason for delay in filmmaking is due to cinematographer as he takes loads of time to change the lights after every shot. It’s true as well. We used five Canon 5D still cameras and shot the movie with them. I had 5 camera operators who shoots the same scene from different angles. Hence, we get five angles/shots for the same scene in real time. There by I reduced the time spent for changing lights. I used Canon 5D cameras because they give excellent output with naked-eye quality without using any additional lights. It costs around 1.5 lacs to buy each of these cameras. A subject of Dongala Mutha with limited characters and limited locations need only 5 days to shoot entire movie. There could be four types of flops in industry (1. Producer losing money. 2. Distributor losing money 3. Audiences not liking the movie and 4. Critics not liking the film). The first factor of producer losing money can be controlled if we control the budget. Irrespective of the content, Dongala Mutha is going to be a super hit if it runs for one show because it’s made on such low budget.”
